Liverpool Chamber of Commerce recognises the difficulties faced by small businesses when tendering for public sector contracts. Barriers often quoted include:

accessing tendering opportunities

finding relevant contracts

the pressure to respond to calls within limited timescales

contracts being too large or diverse for a small business to compete

even the language of procurement has presented problems.

As a Chamber of Commerce we have worked over a number of years to redress this imbalance for our members and have developed unique products such as our tender alert service to address some of the issues.

An independent inquiry has recently been launched looking specifically at the barriers faced by small businesses and social enterprises when tendering for public sector work. An opportunity has now arisen to put your views directly to government and as your Chamber we encourage you to respond to the consultation and have your views heard.

The Promoting Tender Opportunities programme is available to businesses that have been trading for less than 3 years and are based in Merseyside.

This ESF-funded project will provide free training and support to new businesses with the aim that they will have the necessary entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge to successfully bid for a variety of tender opportunities.

The workshop on the 18th June covers three essential areas of business:

An Overview on Standard Terms and Conditions of Contracts, which takes the form of a discussion on what to consider when entering into Contracts using Standard Terms & Conditions, and which includes a brief resume of some common terms and conditions. The dangers of not having these properly drafted are also covered.

The much documented credit crunch in consumer credit is impacting on business in no small measure, in some cases leading to insolvencies. In order to help safeguard the future of your business a short presentation will outline how to improve cash flow and reduce bad debt, thereby improving and protecting profit.

A short session will take you through the marketing MOT using a Checklist to improve efficiency and help ensure success.

When supplying goods or services, contracts will only be awarded to contractors who can satisfy the client’s requirements in terms of resources required and their health and safety competence.You must prove compliance with basic health and safety law and you must also be able to demonstrate to contractors that you adequately manage health and safety.

This event is designed to ensure that your business is able to meet these vital procurement requirements You can attend this event free of charge if you have been in business less that three years and if you live in the Merseyside area and have registered for the Tender Opportunities Programme. This project is funded by the European Social Fund.

This will be an informative and invaluable information session for you to find out more about what you should do to ensure that you are Health & Safety compliant.It takes place on Wednesday 2 April between 11.45am – 14.45pm including registration, lunch & networking. In the Council Chamber Council Room, No 1 Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9HGTo book your place, request a registration form from June Davies on 0151 227 1234.

If you’ve been trading for less than 3 years and need help to win those lucrative but elusive tenders, we have a limited number of FREE places on the ESF funded Promoting Tender Opportunities programme.

Our aim is to give you the necessary entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge to successfully bid for a variety of tender opportunities.

Liverpool Chamber is working with small businesses to improve their ability to successfully win tenders. With tender contracts of the value of over £45bn in the UK annually, there are valuable opportunities for new businesses to help them develop and grow.

Kevin Griffiths, Liverpool Chamber’s Director of Commercial Services said: “Many small businesses think that tenders are only for large contracts. Liverpool Chamber has demonstrated with its Liverpooltenders.com service that, there are plenty of small sized tenders right across the business spectrum that present ideal opportunities for smaller businesses.”

The ESF funded project, Promoting Tender Opportunities run by Liverpool Chamber will provide free training and support to new and young companies, in how to identify and write bids for the tenders and guidance on the type of information they should have before they tender.

Kevin Griffiths said: “More than one person can apply from each business, so this can be used as a great opportunity to put an in-house procurement team together.”

Liverpool Chamber will be running the first workshop titled, ‘How to Tender’ at the end of this month. There are a limited number of spaces and interested companies are advised to submit their application forms by the deadline of Friday 18th January.

Liverpool Chamber is nurturing start-ups and young businesses to encourage them to grow through successfully bidding for tenders.

Kevin Griffiths, Liverpool Chamber’s Director of Commercial Services said: “This ESF funded project will provide free training and support to new and young companies, providing the necessary entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge for them to successfully bid for a variety of tender opportunities.”

Training will consist of ‘hand holding’ the young companies in how to identify and write bids for the tenders and guidance on the type of information they should have before they tender.

In addition to guidance, Liverpool Chamber will be producing a guidance booklet on public sector tendering and giving the companies access to a series of ‘Meet the Buyer’ events and registration on LiverpoolTenders.com, a web-based tender alert service which simplifies the way that small businesses access information on tenders.

Kevin continued: “We aim to develop a best practice network of tenderers, increasing their competitiveness by assisting them to increase their turnover, efficiency and profitability through enabling access to wider markets.”

Here’s Maresa Molloy, the Chamber’s Head of Policy & Information talking about Liverpooltenders.com the Chamber’s service that was a finalist in the World Chamber’s award. She also discusses the launch of the British Chambers of Commerce national conference, due to be held at Liverpool’s new arena and convention centre in 2008.

The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games are already providing business opportunities for companies in the region.

Liverpool Chamber has created a specific category, Olympic 2012, in its Liverpooltenders.com service to cater for tenders that are already being listed on the site. Maresa Molloy, Head of the Chamber’s Policy and Information Team said: “The speed and frequency of tendering opportunities is moving fast and furious. Current figures suggest that the 2012 Games will cost in the region of £3.3bn+.

“LiverpoolTenders.com is already tracking the tenders coming from the Olympics. Recently posted tenders have been identified for the transport, landscaping and sports industries. We have recently added a category that will alert registered companies to any Olympics 2012 opportunity.”

The opportunities identified that are specifically relevant to the NW are for supplying food and drink, green technologies, this is aims to be the most sustainable games, sport part of the existing supply-chain in NW, digital and creative as there will be a massive media requirement and visitor economy such as merchandising opportunities.

London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Olympic Delivery Authority will adhere to stringent public procurement regulations including H&S, environmental and equal opportunity regulations.

Maresa continued: “All contracts will be advertised on the London 2012 website and will be open to a global market place. This will focus on 1st and 2nd tier suppliers. At the tier 3 level there will be a stronger relationship-led component to main contractors use of their existing or newly developed supply-chains.”

If you would like more information about Liverpooltenders.com or need help adding new groups to your list contact, June Davies on 224 1864.

A quick survey of our renewing members is showing that growing their business and having employees with the right skills are their key business concerns at the moment.

Scoring 30% and 15% of the votes respectively, these issues are currently way ahead of ‘traditional’ business worries of taxation, energy costs and cash flow.

Liverpool Chamber can help with these concerns. We help our members grow their businesses in a number of ways. Our regular networking events have helped members to make new contacts, generate business and entertain their existing clients. Liverpooltenders.com provides an early warning system for tender opportunities. It reaches across an extensive range of sectors and provides the support to help your business be in a position to successfully win these opportunities. We also offer a range of money savers from £65,000 legal cover to a utility auditing service to keep bills down.

Employee skills can be addressed through the Chamber’s business skills seminars and the array of work-based qualifications offered both through traditional learning and on-line, through Chamber4Learning and our training arm, Trident Training. Many of these courses can be provided at reduced costs through SkillWorks funding that provide s a 60% reduction in the cost of all levels of staff training.

If you would like to know more about any of these chamber services visit our main website or call 0151 227 1234.

Liverpool Chamber has further developed its portfolio of services, with an online trading platform. LiverpoolABC enables companies to post their buying opportunities live on the web. These are matched up to registered businesses via an online alert or SMS text message.

Maresa Molloy, Liverpool Chamber’s Head of Policy & Information explained: “ABC stands for Active Business Community and is a new service designed to complement our LiverpoolTenders service by encouraging businesses to intertrade with each other. It has been designed as a way of matching up opportunities to businesses.”

Maresa continued: “This is an efficient way to get quotes and to trade with local suppliers. We made sure that companies who register with the service can filter the amount of information that they receive in a number of ways so that the replies received are the most up to date and relevant to their areas of interest.”